The Department for Transport have identified six key indicators which relate to road deaths and will measure the key outcomes of the strategy at a national level. These are:

Number of road deaths (and rate per billion vehicle miles)

Rate of motorcyclist deaths per billion vehicle miles

Rate of car occupant deaths per billion vehicle miles

Rate of pedal cyclist deaths per billion vehicle miles

Rare of pedestrian deaths per billion miles walked

Number of deaths resulting from collisions involving drivers under 25

At the local level, the number of road deaths is small and subject to fluctuation. For this reason it is suggested that local road safety partnerships focus on reducing the number of killed or seriously injured casualties. In line with this, the West Midlands Local Transport Plan 3 sets a performance aim to:

"Reduce annual Killed and Seriously Injured (KSI) casualties by 17.3% between the baseline 2005–09 average and the 2011–15 average."

The Department for Transport's Road Safety Strategy for 2001–2010 set out national targets for reduction of casualties in road traffic collisions by 2010, compared to the average for 1994–98. These targets are summarised below:

Target

Baseline

Required

Achieved

40% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured in road accidents

2,093

1,256 (40%)

924 (56%)

50% reduction in the number of children killed or seriously injured

415

207 (50%)

173 (58%)

10% reduction in the slight casualty rate, expressed as the number of people slightly injured per 100 million vehicle kilometres1

10,484

9,435 (10%)

7,777 (26%)

1. The number of slight casualties given here is a total and not expressed as the number of people slightly injured per 100 million vehicle kilometres.

In addition to the national targets, the highways authorities of the West Midlands set further targets to achieve by 2010. These are summarised below:

Target

Baseline

Required

Achieved

30% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured in road accidents from 2004 to 2010

1,149

804 (30%)

924 (20%)

35% reduction in the number of children killed or seriously injured between the 2002–2004 average and the 2008–2010 average

In 2002 the Department of Transport
gave the seven Local Authorities in the West Midlands region the go
ahead to join up with the Magistrates Court, Highways Agency and West
Midlands Police to form the Casualty Reduction Partnership. Whether
you use speed camera detector equipment or have logged on to find out
speed camera locations, you should know excessive speed contributes
to thousands of injuries on our roads each year.